JohnK

My wife, sister-in-law and 13-year-old daughter and I took the yaks out yesterday to our favorite cove on Lake Travis (for kayaking that is). It's very easily accessed from Cypress Creek Park, a small county park at the intersection of Bullick Hollow Road and FM 2769 (Volente Road). This cove is great for kayaking because it is all "no wake".

It was a perfect day for kayaking! My daughter put up slide show of the trip at YouTube:

YouTube - kayaking on the lake

By the way, don't even consider camping at this park, unless road noise doesn't bother you. Also, the only facilities are latrines. There is no running water.

JohnK

JohnK

Perhaps I should clarify why "no wake" is good. It's not that I don't enjoy rough water, because I do. There are a lot of careless and intoxicated motor boaters and jet ski drivers on Lake Travis, and there's a lot less risk of being run over by one of them when they are restricted to "no wake" speeds.

JohnK

Turn Key

Lucky you! Haven't had our boats out yet this year and it looks like we won't until the middle of next month. No problem. Still have lots of warm weather to come.

Happy Camping!

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toejam

It was a colder-than-normal winter and I didn't paddle like I usually do. But I did overnight floats on the Brazos the last 2 weekends. Last week was cool temps and there was still snow in places from that freak storm. This week was very nice. Here are some pictures from last week.

Picasa Web Albums - Steve - Brazos River

JohnK

Looks like a great trip, toejam! Where were your put-in and take-out points, and where did you camp?

JohnK

Motorman355

Yes do tell. You are not the canoeists that had to be rescued from camping on an island the other week? I believe they were on the Brazos.

toejam

If that rescue was anywhere near where I was it must have been really ignorant and inexperienced people, because the river levels weren't fluctuating that much. My trips were on the section between Possum Kingdom Lake and Lake Granbury. The first one was the prettiest section just below the PK. We put in at the Hwy 16 crossing and took out at Hwy 4 (Rochelle's Canoe Rental). We did it the week before Rochelle's opened up for Spring Break to avoid marauding hordes of drunks. Last weekend we put in at I-20 and took out at Tin Top (Hwy 2580). The second trip was 30 miles and it was me and another guy in kayaks. I just find a convenient gravel/sand bar to camp wherever I feel like stopping.

Last weekend the river rose 3' during the night due to water being let out of the dam a couple days before. It got close enough to my tent to freak me out in the morning. This morning the water is 10' higher than that due to 3" of rain the other day. The water levels are changing dramatically lately because the PK dam hydro generators are broke, so now the dam either releases nothing or too much. Normal flow is ~100 cfm. When they open a gate on the dam it's around 20,000 cfm and the water can rise over 10' in a real short time, but they usually send people down the river to warn anybody out there before hand. Of course rain makes a big difference. Last year the the river rose 25' higher than normal on a couple of occasions at Dennis, near where I camped last week.

So if you are planning a trip on that part of the river, make sure you check the levels & flows on the BRA web site, be aware of the weather upstream, and don't leave your stuff too close to the water.